Hey you!
Yeah, you. You're the one I'm talking to.
So glad you could stop and chat with me for a bit.
I just wanted to say, you're looking great today.
And I mean that.
Don't grin and roll your eyes at me.
You really do look great. I wonder if you realize just how many people that smile of yours has touched today, even if it was only a brief smile?
Yeah, yeah. I know. I know every response that brain of yours is coming up with. Believe me, I've used them all.
But trust me, your friends, and even some people you don't really know, drew some energy and joy from that smile you gave them. Such a beautiful smile. Unique to you.
And you know what? You're amazing.
Let me repeat that, because you probably don't get told it enough, and you certainly don't realize it enough.
You. Are. Amazing.
Absolutely breathtaking.
Course, you most likely don't believe that. Trust me, I know that too. I certainly have a very hard time believing it when I hear it.
After all, what's so amazing about me? Or, more pertinent to this little chat of ours, what's so amazing about you?
Well, where do I start.
Let's start here:
1) You are a wonderfully unique human being. I mean it.
I like biology. Theoretical genetics is one of my favourite topics. And you know what my understanding of theoretical genetics tells me? You are absolutely, 100% your own person. You have a genetic code that nobody else on this planet has.
I could through all those technical terms about random this and random that and crossing over at you, but all they mean is that no-one else has your genetic code. No-one else has had your genetic code.
No-one else will have your genetic code.
Unless of course, your an identical twin, in which case, you and your twin share 100% of you DNA.
But you know what, you two are still totally unique. Because who we are is so much deeper than just our genetic code.
No-one else has the same mixture of tastes you do. Nobody else listens to the same mixture of music genres or enjoys the same mixture of flavours or flowers or movies or shows or anything like that.
And your personality. Your personality is so your own. Sure you will meet people with very similar personality types, but you have a set of personality quirks which is uniquely yours.
You are so amazingly unique.
2) And do you know what being unique makes you?
It makes you precious. So very precious.
Do you know what the world's governments have said the highest they'll pay in ransom for a single person is? $2 000 000. At least, that's the figure I heard. Doesn't seem like much, huh? But it means you are most likely the most expensive thing you own.
Money aside, tell me, how does the valuing system of this world work? Let me clarify, how do we decide the value of something?
Here's how: we look at how rare or how common that item is. The rarer it is, the more valuable. The more common it is, the less valuable. That's why flawless diamonds are so expensive. They are extremely difficult to come by.
This means that you, singular, unique you, are extremely, extremely valuable. Because you don't get too much rarer than unique and singular. And you are even for difficult to come by than a flawless diamond. Heck, this planet has had to wait for as long as it's been in existence for you to come by, now it's only got you for a short time and there is absolutely no one to synthesis you the way we can with diamonds.
You are so, so precious.
3) You've got a story no-one else has. You have a life behind you, happening around you and lying in front of you such as nobody else will ever experience.
You walk a road nobody else walks and nobody else will walk. And that road is crossing and intersecting with other roads. The roads of other people and opportunities. That means that alone will be able to touch the lives of every single other person you meet. You alone will be able to affect people at that point and in that way. That's a pretty sacred and wondrous thing, don't you think?
And sure, it looks big and daunting, and the fear of what-if-I-screw-up may be very, very really, but that doesn't make you and your life any less wondrous.
4) This one is one of the most important things ever. This is the one that has stood from the beginning of Creation.
You are made in the image of God.
The image of God.
Well, sure, you say. What does that mean, you say.
What are you looking at me for? I'm only young, I don't know the whole answer. But here it is in a small, small part. A very tiny, poorly formed part.
It means you have a deep, deep capacity for compassion and love. Seriously, we're so special in that way. I've never seen an animal that is capable of the same kind of compassion and love that we are. That you are capable of. That is absolutely wonderful. And sure people may knock compassion and love as weakness, but no society can survive without it. And you have it. You have that capacity of compassion and love that, when used, keeps this world turning. Wow. Just, wow.
It also means that you have authority on this planet. You have the God-given responsibility and ability to rule this world. And I'm not talking Hitler or Stalin style domination. Heck no, that's just warped. No, I'm talking the kind of rule that cares for the welfare of this world, the authority that means you can direct the way society goes. The authority that means you can make a difference. Sure, you may not think you can, but oh, my word, you have that ability within you. And the difference you can make? My mind is just blown away by the sheer wonder of all the possibilities.
You are made in the image of God, and that is an absolutely wondrous thing.
5) This is the most important.
This is the big one.
This is the one you will need to carve into your heart, write on your hand, remember until it becomes knowledge as ingrained as breathing.
This reason leaves all the others in the dark.
Because you know how broken and incomplete you feel? How worthless and imperfect you think you are?
Well, for all that you were designed with the wondrousness and uniqueness I've been outlining, something did go wrong.
Something did break you. It made you incomplete, it made you imperfect. It had the potential to make you worthless.
That thing... well, we call it sin.
It's the human stubbornness that we know best. The mule-headed stupidity that has us saying we can run things. It's that thing inside us all that says that the One who Created this UNIVERSE is an idiot and shouldn't be allowed to, well, own what He has created. When, you know what, we really can't. And He really isn't. And He really, really should.
And you're looking at me as if I'm crazy and asking how is this supposed to show how amazing I am? Well, here it is ladies and gentlemen, here's the reason you're amazing and I'm amazing, and no matter how horrid we feel that is a truth that can never change:
You have been Chosen by this same Creator.
That's right. You heard me right.
The Creator who you have told to get stuffed has chosen you.
He. Has. Chosen. You.
Not because you deserve it.
Man, you deserve the torture chamber, all the crap you've done to Him. I do to. More than you, probably.
But He still Chose you.
He has looked at you and seen everything you have become. He knows exactly how far you are from the amazing, unique, precious and wondrous person He created you to be.
Don't think for one second you have Him fooled about that.
But He has still Chosen you.
He has still said, I want you to be My Child. I want you to call Me Abba. I want to build you a home, not on earth where everything perishes and has no lasting value, but up here, with me, where everything is eternal. Gold and diamonds? They've got no value compared to what I want to give you. Forget about them. I want to give you Eternal Life. I want to give you Joy. I want to give you Peace. I want to give you Love. I want to give you a Royal inheritance. That new prince of England? Forget about his kingdom. The Kingdom I want you to be a part of makes his look like a spec of dust.
And you know what you have to do in order to receive this wonderful incredible gift? Become this incredible, unique, wondrous person? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Just accept it. Just accept Him. Realise that He is, in fact, Creator, and that makes Him King.
Then you become everything you are meant to be: you are unique. You are precious. You are made in God's image with a depth of compassion and love and a wonderful ability to make a difference. And you are His child.
Do you believe me now when I say you're amazing?
You really are.
You are so wonderfully amazing. It blows my mind.
And you're amazing not because of who YOU are, or what YOU have done, but because of who HE is, and what HE has GIVEN to you.
Do you understand that?
Probably not. At least, not entirely. I know I don't. And I've been trying to understand it my whole life. Not that that has been very long.
It's a mystery to me. I guess I'm just going to have to learn to accept it.
Accept the Amazing Grace that has made me Amazing. Same as you are. Because you are amazing.
Please don't let anyone take that away from you.
Don't let anyone make you feel like you aren't worth it, whether it is through what they do to you or through how much you envy them.
You are amazing.
I'm so glad we've had this talk. I hope I've helped you see just how incredible you are.
Thanks for listening to me rambling at you this whole time. I just thought this was important to say.
Because, you know, we never remind each other of this enough.
God bless you,
my amazing friend,
Laura Ruth
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